Several veterans of cancelled television shows left us in April. Some worked in front of the cameras while others worked behind the scenes. Either way, they contributed to the medium in significant ways.
Those that have passed away include Thomas Braden (Eight Is Enough, Crossfire), Dan Miller (The Pat Sajak Show, Miller & Company), Wendy Blair (Three's Company, The Ropers, Three's A Crowd, What A Country, and I Married Dora), Jim Hutchison (Hawaii Five-0, Magnum P.I., and Jake And The Fatman), Marilyn Cooper (Alice, Kate And Allie, Cheers, Law & Order, The Nanny, and Caroline In The City), Kim Weiskopf (One Day At A Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times, What's Happening Now!!, Full House, and Married With Children), Bea Arthur (Maude, The Golden Girls), and Nora O'Brien (Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Kings, The Philanthropist, Parenthood, and Bionic Woman).
Here are the details...
Thomas Braden passed away on April 3rd. He was 92 years old and died of natural causes at his home in Denver. Braden worked for the CIA until 1954 and then bought a newspaper in Oceanside, CA. He wrote a regular column about his life at home with a wife and eight children. Those columns were later collected in book form and became the basis of ABC's Eight is Enough TV series. He returned to Washington, DC in the 1960s and helped create a political debate radio show. In 1982, he helped to launch CNN's political debate series, Crossfire, with Pat Buchanan. He stayed with the program until 1991 and the show ended in 2005. Braden's wife, Joan, had a varied career that included magazine writer, TV interviewer, public relations officer, and aide to both John F. Kennedy and Nelson A. Rockefeller. She died in 1999. Braden is survived by seven children (Thomas Jr. died in 1999) and numerous grandchildren.